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Army Ranger
Army Rangers were the top elite of the American Army. Rangers have two unique abilities in ''Empires'': they are capable of climbing cliffs to reach high altitude, and they can also call for bombardment on a target from artillery far away. Description '' The regular U.S. Army did not carry Ranger units on its Order of Battle until 1942, when there was a clear need to deploy elite light infantry units that excelled in reconnaissance, deep-penetration ambushes, POW rescues, and other "Special Ops". A total of six Ranger battalions saw action, mostly in the Italian and European theaters, but in typical Army fashion, the Rangers were most commonly used (or MIS-used) as shock troops assigned to especially dangerous tasks (the classic case-in-point being the near-suicidal assault up the Pont-du-Hoc cliffs on D-Day).'' Rangers are accurately depicted in Empires, and they are a uniquely American asset. Their special ability, when operating as light infantry, is that of Cliff-Scaling, which enables them to operate freely in terrain too steep for normal foot-soldiers to fight in. Rangers can seize that ever-desirable High Ground by advancing on routes impassable to any other types of troops. They excel at reconnaissance missions and mounting surprise raids behind enemy lines. More importantly, Rangers can also act as Spotters, calling down heavy artillery fire from distant, off-map batteries. When Spotters have a clean line-of-sight on their targets, the "Artillery Barrage" button lights up and your cursor changes to a "Target Flag", which you then place in the center of whatever-it-is you want to bombard. Once the Spotters have called in a fire-mission, however, they become very vulnerable, at least during the interval between the moment they mark a target and the time-lag before the shells actually start to explode. This poses a grim tactical dilemma for the player in command. Is that marked artillery target so important that it's worth sacrificing some Spotters in order for your artillery to inflict maximum damage? Or should you order the Spotters to break cover and return fire, for the sake of survival? If you do choose to abort the fire-mission, then all the Power required to activate a bombardment is simply wasted. Nor can Rangers perform another Spotter mission until they regain full Power. Except in cases of dire emergency, avoid using your Rangers in the role of ordinary frontline infantry - they are elite troops and it's an expensive waste to fritter-away their special skills by using them in a role better-suited to common riflemen. The US Army misused its crack Ranger battalions frequently during World War II. At best, this policy was stupid and wasteful; at worst, it verged on criminal negligence. On the night of Jan. 29, 1944, a hopelessly inept American corps commander, Gen. John Lucas, tried to set up a breakout from the Anzio beachhead by ordering the fabled Darby's Rangers to sneak through two miles of enemy territory, seize the vital RR junction at Cisterna, and hold it until mid-morning. Lucas made no arrangements to support the lightly armed Rangers should they run into trouble before that time. But they did, and it wasn't just "ordinary" trouble, it was a nightmare. Just as Darby's men were about to take their objective, they were savagely attacked by the entire Hermann Goering Panzer Division, the most powerful German formation in Italy. Of the 767 Rangers who set out on this misbegotten operation, only six men made it back to friendly lines. The fact that General Lucas was sacked in disgrace not long afterwards must have been small consolation.Rangers at Empires Heaven See also * * SAS Operative References Category:American units Category:Barracks Category:World War II